Tag Archives: mormon

Word on the Street

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The cockroach crunching under your sneaker goes skittering down a stormy sewer drain. Faceless steel buildings tower up, blacking out the orange haze of polluted streetlight-tinged clouds. From some dark alleyway comes the sound of a sad moan. Under a pile of rainy blankets a wretched homeless hand reaches out to you, clawing the asphalt. A voice cackles, “Got any sugar? Gimme summa that shuga…”

Far off in the distance, the wail of a siren and the pop pop pop of a gun. Another hit and run? Another dimestore robbery?

The smoke from your cigarette makes curls around acidic raindrops. You sigh, drawing yourself into the shadows of the City that Doesn’t Sleep In On Sundays.

You think to yourself – Just another night in Logan.

It’s a rough town. You grew up on the East Side, where Johnny Nametag and the 3rd Ward kept things calm for a while after Hootie strung up that kid for using the Lord’s name in vain – but it wasn’t long before Big Ezra and the Relief Squad came up hard from across the tracks. They were packing sugar cookies (real sugar cookies!) and everybody in town wanted a taste. They called those the Bake Days, and you don’t want to remember them. Thinking back hurts too bad.

Logan’s a sugar town. Everybody wants a taste of the sugar. There’s always a drug war going on somewhere – whether it’s the 8th Ward with their Oatmeal Squirts or Don Ephraim importing ice cream from Hyrum (it keeps the Aggie Ice Cream crew up at night). The stakes are high, and don’t be surprised if you run across some poor kid with a bullet wound headed for outer darkness. Just walk on by – just walk on by.

The cops are nowhere to be found – they gave up or sold out a long time ago. The town’s too rough, and the State has given up on Logan (I hear the politicians are calling it “The Jungle” up here) and we only have one, maybe two cops left. Sometimes I think about leaving this place, but there’s nothing for me out there. Once you leave Logan, where can you go?

Seriously, though – Logan is a rough town for a non-believer. Every Sunday, a black and white stream pours out of the churches by the thousands, and the empty dystopian city appears to have been eaten by zombies. A massive majority of people are LDS – these are the people you work with, the ones you date, the ones you order your Baconator from, the people signing your checks and teaching your classes.

What brought you to Logan? Did you grow up here? What experiences have you had with the pressures of living within a very closed community with rigorous (ridiculous) divine moral standards, from which not even our gas fumes can escape?

Logan has a veritable army of churchgoing police officers with their eyes out for anyone in a black T-shirt. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Would you prefer to live in a secular city with a higher crime rate? What about the influence the church has on gender roles, dating and relationships?

How has such an environment shaped you and your experiences?

 

My name is Jack, and I’m an ex-Mormon

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My friend and fellow SHAFTer Jack was recently interviewed for the “I am an ex-Mormon” video series. In his interview, he discusses his experiences as a bisexual woman in the LDS Church and his life now as a transgender individual.

Jack, you’re an incredibly courageous person. Thanks for sharing your inspiring story! I regret not having gotten to know you better while at USU.

Did the gold plates exist?

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I have generally celebrated the success of “The Book of Mormon” musical. I enjoy irreverent satire, and the musical’s creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker have finely calibrated their satiric sights for over a decade with “South Park.”

That said, the musical did get several things wrong about Mormonism, especially where its history and theology are concerned. The musical was guilty of the fashionable claim that Joseph Smith never let anyone see or handle the gold plates, instead (quickly and conveniently) returning them to the angel Moroni. The implication, of course, is that Joseph Smith never had the gold plates; a point Stone and Parker also belabored in the South Park episode “All About Mormons.”

The story of Mormonism’s origins and the gold plates is vastly more nuanced, however. In this post, I’ll argue that Joseph Smith actually had gold plates (or a passable substitute). Contrary to popular belief outside of Mormonism, Smith did reveal the gold plates to a number people—namely the 11 witnesses, but a few others as well.

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Why I like (most) LDS temples

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Few things serve as a starker reminder of Mormonism’s near omnipresence in Utah than the 14 temples that dot our state’s landscape. The Salt Lake temple, as the church’s flagship temple, casts the longest shadow. And because a lot of ex-Mormons and non-Mormons here don’t like living in that shadow, the Salt Lake temple for them almost takes on a menacing visage (the fact that it resembles a fortress doesn’t help).

But I have a confession to make: For the most part, I actually like the temples. Admittedly, I sometimes get the creeps from the Salt Lake temple. Perhaps it’s just too synonymous with the LDS Church’s inordinate influence in Utah. Otherwise, I’m able to divorce the temples from Mormonism and appreciate them as architectural works and landmarks.

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Perception vs reality

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This morning I ran across a column from the Trib called “Life in Mormon ads not consistent with reality.” The comments on the piece seem to split between agreeing with the writer and saying that she clearly has not gotten out of Utah or gotten to know her fellow church members very well.

The thing, I think, is that both camps are right. Not only are church members typically a little more diverse outside of the Book of Mormon belt, but I personally know a hugely varied range of people who are LDS church members. Not only do they have many different takes on their own religion, but their hobbies, careers, looks, race and everything else run the gamut.

BUT.

I also think the sort of people I attract as friends are semi-atypical of Mormons. While the people within the church may have individual lives, the capital-C Church has worked very hard for the last 40 years to create uniformity. The Mormons may have started out as a rag-tag bunch of trailblazers, but the implementation of correlation created personal conformity in addition to doctrinal conformity. From the top down a very conservative personal dress and lifestyle is encouraged. Many members feel pressure from leaders and doctrine to look and act a certain way, and (particularly in my area) any deviation from that is met with judgment from friends, neighbors and fellow congregants. Watch an R-rated movie? Expect a few whispers. Grow a beard? Better hope you don’t get called into the bishopric. Feel like you, as a woman, should work outside the home? God give you strength to deal with people telling you how you are hurting your family.* So members stay in line to stay in good standing with the church and because it is culturally reinforced.

I think this video kind of says it all. The church is trying to attract ever more diverse populations with a uniform, conservative message. But most church members I know deviate from that norm, at least somewhat. (Hell, my best friend is planning on getting dreads this summer!) So where is the truth on this issue? Does the new ad campaign reflect the reality of LDS membership, even if it doesn’t reflect the reality of correlation? Do I just know unusual Mormons? Or is the whole issue just shades of gray? Thoughts?

*Many of these are becoming more accepted and recent talks from church leadership have softened pronouncements on such issues as birth control, working moms and other divisive issues, but there are still a lot of traditional expectations for members.

Every member a missionary

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This post was written by my friend and recent USU alumnus Di. It was originally published at her blog and is shared here with her permission.

At the risk of coming across as a raving anti-Mormon to people who don’t know me well, I offer the following story to those dealing with non and former Mormons.

Matt and I had a couple of people who I assume were from Relief Society (Mormon women’s organization) drop by the other day to welcome us to the neighborhood. It was very nice of them to introduce themselves and ask about us. But as soon as those brief niceties were over, they then asked if we were members and we said no. Which was followed by asking if we had been baptized, to which we said yes. They proceeded to tell us where the church was and what time services are. Then they pointed out all our member neighbors, while seemingly not knowing or not caring about any of the non churchgoing neighbors.

I get that there is a lot of emphasis put on missionary work and fellowshipping (being friendly to with a missionary slant) non and inactive members. But this whole visit was really frustrating to me, because I felt like it went from a really nice “welcome to the area” visit to a “missionary/we don’t care about you if you don’t come to church” visit in 30 seconds.

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Mormonism: a definition through contradiction

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The following is a paper I wrote for a class in 2008. It was among my first forays into Mormon studies, and my understanding of Mormonism has evolved slightly since then. Still, I hope the paper yields a few insights—at least enough to excuse its length!

Mormonism is a religion colored by complexities and contradictions. The prolific Mormon essayist Eugene England called the Mormon experience “essentially, as well as existentially, paradoxical.” LDS author Terryl Givens, more recently, posits a similar thesis in his book People of Paradox.

“By proving contraries, truth is made manifest,” said Joseph Smith, the founding prophet of the LDS Church. Informed by Smith’s statement, I will discuss Mormonism’s contraries in the hope of explaining the religion. My method in this paper will follow the seven Cs of religious studies: creed, code, cultus, community, culture, confines, and consciousness. In each of these seven characteristics exist tensions that help define Mormonism.

One of the most important aspects of a religion is its creed—its set of core beliefs. The Mormon “creed,” as it were, can be found in the Articles of Faith. Joseph Smith penned a letter to the inquiring John Wentworth, editor of the Chicago Democrat, articulating 13 fundamental doctrines of Mormonism. The letter was later canonized as the Articles of Faith.

The primary articles affirm the church’s belief in: God, Christ, and the Holy Ghost; free moral agency and accountability for one’s actions; the salvation of man through the Atonement and “by obedience to the laws and ordinances [faith, repentance, baptism by immersion, and the laying on of hands] of the Gospel”; the Bible “as far as it is translated correctly” and the Book of Mormon as scripture; continuing revelation; and the Restoration of the Primitive Church.

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